Hack for LA

What's better to do during the July 4th holiday than to get patriotic with some civic data? This national event is happening now through July 28.

The Challenge:

The Civic Data Challenge turns the raw data of ‘civic health’ into useful applications and visualizations that have direct impact on public decision-making. In order to achieve an exceptional level of real-world usefulness, designers, data scientists, researchers, and application developers will collaborate with local leaders and respond to the needs of specific communities or social issues. Click here for more information.

The Creation Phase is now open! This is the time to work with the data, form teams, connect with community partners, and build useful products that address specific community needs. While we encourage you to continue brainstorming and to think outside the box, the themes that have been identified from the Ideation Phase are:

• Civic Infrastructure & Action
  Public Services & Safety
  Education & Generational Development

Deadline:

The deadline to submit your entry is 11:59 p.m. Eastern, July 28th, 2013. Finalists will be announced in late August and move on to the Implementation Phase.

Check it out and let's make sure LA is well represented!

Want to demo your app at the White House?  2 days left to submit your project or story to Hack for Change DC event!

If you're proud of your app, or if you have a story to tell about how Hack for LA inspired changes at your agency or company, share it! Submitting your project or story will allow it to be considered by the White House and sponsors such as Intel for national recognition. 8 to 15 of the projects that are submitted will be invited to attend an event at the White House at the end of July. Others will be given attention by national partners such as Intel. Still others will be featured on hackforchange.org, demonstrating the amazing things that came from the National Day of Civic Hacking initiative. We want to make sure LA is represented in DC, so please submit your project! Submissions close on June 30th! 

What is the purpose of the event at the White House in July?
The event at the White House at the end of July will be a showcase of the value of civic hacking. It will feature a series of projects that were started or worked on at National Day of Civic Hacking and will continue living well beyond it. This is not about selecting winners! The national team are not picking projects because they are the best, but rather because they represent a piece of what civic hacking is all about. The best way to increase your chances of being selected for the White House event is to collaborate with others to build a project that is relevant to you, the challenge you are working on, and your neighborhood, city or country. In other words - don't think about it and focus on doing something that is great in and of itself!

What will increase my chances of being recognized?
The best thing you can do is create a compelling video to go along with your submission! If you created a software project, check out these example videos from a similar initiative (scroll down a bit). Also, submit any other PHOTOS and VIDEOS to support your story or project! Above all, tell us as much as you can about your project! Who it will help / where it is hosted / who can use it / etc.

We can't wait to tell the story of Hack for LA in DC!!

Check out the awesome Hack for LA video that the great folks from TV4 Startups created about Hack for LA!